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VII. Fouillis d'arcs-en-ciel, pour l'Ange qui annonce la fin du Temps
Tangle of rainbows, for the Angel who announces the end of
time, for the full quartet

Recurring here are certain passages from the second movement.
The angel appears in full force, especially the rainbow that covers
him (the rainbow, symbol of peace, wisdom, and all luminescent and
sonorous vibration). — In my dreams, I hear and see ordered chords
and melodies, known colors and shapes; then, after this transitional
stage, I pass through the unreal and suffer, with ecstasy, a tournament;
a roundabout compenetration of superhuman sounds and colors.
These swords of fire, this blue-orange lava, these sudden stars: there
is the tangle, there are the rainbows!
VIII. Louange à l'Immortalité de Jésus
Praise to the immortality of Jesus, for violin and piano
Large violin solo, counterpart to the violoncello solo of the 5th
movement. Why this second eulogy? It is especially aimed at the second
aspect of Jesus, Jesus the Man, the Word made flesh, immortally
risen for our communication of his life. It is all love. Its slow ascent
to the acutely extreme is the ascent of man to his God, the child of
God to his Father, the being made divine towards Paradise.

—Olivier Messiaen from the preface to the score of
Quartet For the End of Time

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